Monthly Archives: June 2017

The third and final instalment in the Liliana Trilogy is finally on its way. With the help of the fabulous designer, Rachel Bostwick, I’m so excited to reveal the title and cover of the third book in the trilogy, Eternity Begins.

I had an idea in mind for Eternity Begins, and so I sent the below sketch to Rachel. It’s fair to say, she transformed it into something beautiful.

The first two books in the trilogy are available to purchase on Amazon, so if you want to be up to date before Eternity Begins is released on 31st August 2017, you can get them by following the links below.

Eternity Begins is available for pre-order right now, and to make it even more special, it’s only 0.99! Pre-order your copy here!

Liliana Frye is a Custos – an immortal being with superhuman powers. It’s a life that many would love to have, and yet Liliana’s hasn’t been easy. Her powers are greatly desired by Duana, a Custos whose main aim is to steal as many powers as she can to become the greatest of all.

The Book of Custos contains the information that Duana needs to take the powers, but she doesn’t have it. Liliana’s family have the book. Duana has Liliana, along with hundreds of Custos in her crystal ball prisons. It’s only a matter of time before she figures out the ritual, and puts everyone’s lives in danger.

The action-packed final instalment of the Liliana Trilogy will keep you hooked until the very last page.

Mystical Lands. Epic Adventure. Enchanting Characters.

FIRE & FANTASY will have your imagination soaring as you charge headfirst into this enchanting collection of 20+ brand new and existing fantasy reads packed with daring quests, bewitching legends, and dark magic!

Embark on sweeping adventures alongside fiery dragons, mystical mermaids, enchanted faeries, warring witches, demons, elves, and sword-wielding heroes as they face forces of evil and fight for the fate of their worlds!

With over a million words of original Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, and Sword and Sorcery Fantasy from more than twenty bestselling and award winning authors, prepare to lose yourself in the high-stakes fates of lovers, heroes, and villains.

UNLEASH THE MAGIC IN FIRE & FANTASY and enter the worlds of the most creative fantasy authors when you PreOrder Today!

Pre-Order Here:

Meet the Authors and Their Stories!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be introducing a couple authors in this amazing boxset. Find out about the books FIRE & FANTASY has inside!

Alicia Rades and DEEP WATERS

Alicia Rades is a USA Today bestselling author of young adult paranormal fiction with a love for supernatural stories set in the modern world. When she’s not plotting out fiction novels, you can find her writing content for various websites or plowing her way through her never-ending reading list.

Deep Waters

Bree Waters has always known she’s descended from mermaids, but when one washes up on the shores of Sea Haven beach, secrets begin to uncover themselves.

Cassandra Sky West and A FIST FULL OF MAGIC

Cassandra Sky West is an award-winning journalist, veteran of the armed forces, and jane-of-all-trades. She lives in Idaho with the love of her life and their three kids. After writing day in and day out for ten years, her spouse strongly encouraged her to try to make a living out of it. Since then, she’s written under various pen-names and sold several stories of werewolves, witches, and the arcane. She plans on writing until the day she dies. Possibly after, if that’s allowed.

A Fistful of Magic

Immortal elves, dragons, gods, and spirits, oh my!

Caitlin Vnois is the world’s most recognizable elf. Heir to the bloodlines, princess of the royal Atlantean family, supermodel, shaman, the list goes on. Thomas Washington doesn’t know any of this, all he knows is she’s most beautiful woman he’s ever met, and she saved him from drowning when a freak tsunami struck the island of Puerto Rico. The only problem is, he has no memory of arriving on the island. When the heir to the throne of Atlantis is kidnapped, Caitlin turns to Wash to help her find the crown princess. Wash, however, has a secret of his own, one he isn’t even aware of. In a future where magic, spirits, shamans and gods walk the Earth, Thomas Washington finds himself trapped in a titanic struggle for a power he didn’t know he possessed. With two sides fighting to use him or kill him, can he discover the truth about himself? Or will both sides play him to gain the magic he possesses?

AND REMEMBER, the authors have put together a GIFT for those who Pre-Order FIRE & FANTASY!

A painter has their paint brush. A sculptor has their clay. What does this have to do with indie publishing? Just like that painter and that sculptor, a writer is an artist. Artists create. They create beauty, tragedy, the illusion of reality. They show us how things are and how things should be.

As creators, we must use what is available to us – tools of the trade. A lot of this can be said for both indie published authors and traditionally published ones. No matter the size of the publishing house you have behind you, there are certain things you must do for yourself. Writing, for example.

Still, there are some tools that will be used more by indies who must make their own advertising graphics, choose their own Amazon key words, and handle their own marketing. I’ve listed seven of my favorite “brushes” for our form of artistry.

Scrivener – Every author no matter their publishing path can benefit from this tool and that’s why it’s at the top of my list. It isn’t free, but it is very affordable. Scrivener is a writing program. It’s used in the same way many people use Word, but there are benefits. It’s a bit more stripped down than Word, simple and easy to use. The best part about it is the way it organizes your book. These novels we write can reach into the hundreds of word pages. Have you ever forgotten something you wrote and had to scroll through the entire document to find it? In Scrivener, documents are divided into chapters that you can name and move around at will. They also provide character building templates so you never again have to wonder what color eyes you gave a character in some previous chapter.

Canva – Photoshop is expensive and kind of confusing if you ask me. Canva is an online tool that allows you to import images (or buy stock photos from them) and manipulate them, changing colors and adding text, to create ads or promotional images. It’s easy to use even for an image illiterate like myself. I’d be lost without canva.

KDP Rocket – Are you wanting to write a book that has a jump start in popularity? This is called writing to market and many indie authors are doing it. KDP Rocket is a program that helps identify trends and fads in the marketplace to allow you to jump on board. That’s only one of its many features. It can also help determine which keywords would give your book the largest boost. And have you ever wondered about the kind of money certain books are bringing in? Now you can see exactly how each book in the Amazon marketplace is doing to help you decide which genre you’d like to jump into. It can be fun. The program isn’t free, but it can be worth it for indie published/ self-published authors.

Social media management programs – there are many of these including Buffer andHootsuite. As authors, we’re expected to maintain a presence on so many different platforms that if we aren’t careful, all of our valuable writing time will be sucked away. These programs streamline social media. They allow you to post the same thing across different platforms with a few clicks. You can plan ahead, down to the minute, your posts to Facebook and Twitter. I can schedule an entire month’s worth of posts in about an hour. The small fee is incredibly worth it.

The Emotion Thesaurus – Really, I could put the entire series and the connected website here. The Emotion Thesaurus is a book that has a page dedicated to any emotion you can imagine and describes things like body language of feelings associated with it. The series also contains books for character traits and settings. The website connected to the books is called Writers Helping Writers and has more resources in one place than you can even imagine.

Calibre – A completely free ebook management program that I always find some use for. As an indie, you will most likely be sending out your own review copies. Calibre allows you to convert them to any format that is requested from you so they can be read on any device. This has been helpful to me because I also help other authors by reading their work. Many of them send it in Doc format which doesn’t read so well on my Kindle. Instead of having to read on my computer, I can easily convert it to the format I need.

Bookfunnel(or Instafreebie) – Do you send out review copies to your advance team? Do you give away ebooks in large giveaways? Whenever you need to send a book, wouldn’t it be easier to just send a link and then have the reader download the book on any device they prefer? That’s what these sites allow. They also let you collect emails of the people who download your book which is invaluable if you’re focused on building a large Newsletter (which you should be).

There are so many great resources for writers out there and with the rapidly growing indie publishing industry, more are popping up all the time. None of these replace the best resource available, though. Other authors will forever be the best source of marketing advice and support as well as critiques and cross-author promotions.

The tools are out there to make a go of it in this industry. The biggest thing I’ve learned is to never be afraid to try the new ones that come along. Experiment, see what works for you. Don’t be afraid of technology and never ever think social media is a waste of time. In the crowded market, we need to be everywhere. We must make it as easy as possible for readers to see us and get ahold of our books. As indies, we don’t have the huge teams behind us, but in today’s world, some successful authors are finding they don’t need them.

The Story:

CRYSTAL FROST tells herself she isn’t crazy, but sane people don’t see ghosts. As her psychic abilities manifest, Crystal discovers she can see into the future, witness the past, and speak with the dead. Add blackmail to the list of things she never thought would happen to her, and you basically have her sophomore year covered. After spotting her first ghost, secrets from her family, friends, and classmates begin to surface. Uncovering secrets can be dangerous, but giving up means someone will get hurt. Again.

Review:

I really enjoyed this book even thought it’s outside my usual genres. Let’s start at the top. That cover is gorgeous. Made me want to one-click right then. I was expecting something a bit different based on that cover though. That just means it got me out of my usual reading rut and I was glad for that.

Ms. Rades’ style is easy on the brain and flows quite nicely. I was able to read this in two sittings because at no point does it stall or get boring. Crystal is a fun character who is easy to root for and very well developed from beginning to end. She has a great supporting cast of family and friends.

The story itself is an intriguing page-turner of a mystery and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the series has to offer.

The Story:

Monsters haunt her dreams, but humans are her worst nightmare…

Just as Emma Kincaid came into some disturbing empathic powers, she lost her mother in a car crash. She is also pretty certain she’s being followed, maybe even hunted. But, is it the shadowy creatures that haunt her nightmares or the mysterious guy, shrouded in darkness, who just enrolled at Jefferson High?

The Review:

Sigh. I loved Mattox.

Anway, disclosure, this was the first book by CK Dawn I’ve ever read. So I didn’t already know the world. I didn’t recognize any of the other characters brought in. To me, it was simply about Emma and Mattox. I still loved it.

Emma is still grieving over the loss of her mother as she’s dealing with other people’s emotions weighing her down and also someone or something following her. If that were me, I’d go a little crazy. It’s understandable why she’s guarded around Mattox and takes quite a while to trust him. I loved that he kept trying – even if that was his job. And the fact that he was the only one who could give her peace from other people’s emotions was pure magic.

It’s a good, quick read, with easy-flowing writing. Now I want to dive into the rest of the series.

Get this book for FREE!

Check out my contribution, Prophecy of Darkness, to the Fire and Fantasy set HERE!

Prophecy of Darkness is a collaboration with author Michelle Bryan. Find her HERE.